Atomenergomash of Russia has forged the bottom part of the reactor pressure vessel for the Akkuyu 3 reactor, construction of which is about to start in Turkey. The impressive dome-shaped steel component weighs about 64 tons.

Bangladesh wants to build another nuclear power plant after its first one is completed, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said yesterday as work at the Rooppur plant reached a critical milestone. "If we are able to build another nuclear power plant, we will no longer face a power crisis," she said after inaugurating the installation of the reactor pressure vessel at Rooppur 1. Hasina's words were reported by the country's official news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha after a briefing from her press secretary Ihsanul Karim on a meeting with Rosatom head Alexey Likhachov.

The reactor pressure vessel for the first new reactor under construction at Russia's Kursk II nuclear power plant has been delivered to site. Made from nickel-free steel it can give the plant service life of up to 100 years, Rosatom said.

Russia's MBIR multipurpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor is now in the installation phase, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachov announced yesterday. Likhachov's announcement was made during a working trip to the city of Dimitrovgrad in the Ulyanovsk region to monitor the construction of the reactor, which began at the site of the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in September 2015.

Atomenergomash is in the process of manufacturing the reactor pressure vessel for Turkey's new Akkuyu 3 reactor. Improvements to hand-held cutting tools have cut the time of some jobs by 75%, it said.

Completion of unit 4 of the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in Ukraine will be accelerated by the use of major plant components in storage since the construction of new reactors at VC Summer in the USA was cancelled. The head of Energoatom toured Westinghouse warehouses to inspect the condition of the AP1000 components.

Ukraine and the USA have agreed to "deepen and intensify" their strategic cooperation in energy. Nuclear power leads a suite of agreements with a project to complete Khmelnitsky unit 4, followed up with four new AP1000 units at a total value of USD30 billion.

The bridge of the polar crane for unit 1 of the Zhangzhou nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province has been raised into position near the top of the Hualong One reactor building. For the first time in China, the components of the bridge were lifted as a whole rather than individually. Sitting on a circular rail, the crane can rotate 360 degrees and will be used to lift reactor components and main pump components.

Russia has finished pouring concrete for the foundation slab of its new BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor at the Siberian Chemical Combine's Seversk site. It is part of an overall programme to close the nuclear fuel cycle.

The loading of spherical fuel elements has begun at the demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant (HTR-PM) at Shidaowan, in China's Shandong province. The milestone came one day after the issuance of an operating licence for the twin-unit plant, which is scheduled to start operations later this year.

Regular electricity production at the Olkiluoto 3 EPR is now expected to begin in June 2022 due to extended turbine overhaul and inspection works, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj announced. The extension of those works has already led to a one-month delay in the plant's start-up.

A major project to build a new ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, USA has passed a milestone with the completion of the foundations for one of two major buildings for the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System. The 55,000 square feet (5100 square metre) New Filter Building will house the high-efficiency particulate air filter units that will clean air extracted from the WIPP underground.